I purchased "Game of Thrones" at the airport on my way home from Chicago. I really wanted "Wise Man's Fear," so I have only read the prolouge of GoT so far. It was interesting. I then purchased Wise Man's Fear in Detroit and immediately started reading that instead.

My husband decided to read GoT since I wasn't, and he said he won't be finishing the series. He thinks it's a bit boring. He's 100 pages in and said the action in the prolouge is pretty much all the action he has encountered so far.

A hundred whole pages and it isn't a Bruce Willis movie yet? Shame on George Martin!

Oh, are you enjoying it? I actually read that years and years ago while recovering from a surgery. It was long and tedious at times, but I found the story beautiful and I really liked it.

Just started it. I seem to be in the "back story" part right now, so I'm sort of in wait-and-see mode with it.

The narrative seems well written and properly paced thusfar. I picked it up with the thought that as an architect, I might enjoy it a little bit more. Gratuitous description of building methods and designs would be totally fine by me.

The narrative seems well written and properly paced thusfar. I picked it up with the thought that as an architect, I might enjoy it a little bit more. Gratuitous description of building methods and designs would be totally fine by me.

The narrative seems well written and properly paced thusfar. I picked it up with the thought that as an architect, I might enjoy it a little bit more. Gratuitous description of building methods and designs would be totally fine by me.

Edited, Jul 15th 2011 3:38pm by Eske

I'm not an architect, but it was still interesting to me.

That's a good sign, then. I'm really hoping to enjoy it. Plus, I just think it has a cool title and cover, though I hear you're not supposed to judge a book by that or something.

I read the first four books that way. The narrator for the first three, Roy Dotrice, makes them quite worthwhile. He's great. Unfortunately they changed narrator's for Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons, and the new guy isn't as good.

It seems that Roy Dotrice is the narrator for this one after all from what I've read online. I'll need to look into this when I finally finish Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. (I can't listen to my iPod at work any more, so I've slowed down a lot now...)

I read the first four books that way. The narrator for the first three, Roy Dotrice, makes them quite worthwhile. He's great. Unfortunately they changed narrator's for Feast for Crows and Dance with Dragons, and the new guy isn't as good.

It seems that Roy Dotrice is the narrator for this one after all from what I've read online. I'll need to look into this when I finally finish Memory, Sorrow and Thorn. (I can't listen to my iPod at work any more, so I've slowed down a lot now...)

Oh, awesome. I'd wait for the audiobook, but since my girlfriend reads them in book form, I suppose there's no reason to get two different copies.

Seriously, its like he has a list of characters that people like, and he just kills them off to see how many people he can **** off. Sure, I'll admit the person stabbed towards the end at that certain location might not actually be dead, but that can't exactly have been healthy either. Then the whole telling us major characters were killed in battle and not describing the battle at all, preferring to put that in the next book when it is released 20 years from now? What the ****. And then ****, while we are at it, lets introduce more major charactrers, kill a few more characters off, almost completely ignore some others, and leave the whole siituation more messed up and less close to resolution than when we started.

Here's how the last book ends: "and then, everybody everywhere died. After that, the corpse people and the others lived happily ever after, the end!"

Seriously, its like he has a list of characters that people like, and he just kills them off to see how many people he can **** off. Sure, I'll admit the person stabbed towards the end at that certain location might not actually be dead, but that can't exactly have been healthy either. Then the whole telling us major characters were killed in battle and not describing the battle at all, preferring to put that in the next book when it is released 20 years from now? What the ****. And then ****, while we are at it, lets introduce more major charactrers, kill a few more characters off, almost completely ignore some others, and leave the whole siituation more messed up and less close to resolution than when we started.

Here's how the last book ends: "and then, everybody everywhere died. After that, the corpse people and the others lived happily ever after, the end!"

Edited, Jul 17th 2011 12:27pm by Kaolian

I know, although I do believe that the character stabbed at the end is physically dead. There seems to be some foreshadowing done in the beginning of the book about other possibilities after that though. As for the ending of the series, Martin has stated at one point that he wanted it to end with Westeros completely in ruins, nothing left but ashes and dust. Valar Morghulis to the extreme I suppose.

I know, although I do believe that the character stabbed at the end is physically dead. There seems to be some foreshadowing done in the beginning of the book about other possibilities after that though. As for the ending of the series, Martin has stated at one point that he wanted it to end with Westeros completely in ruins, nothing left but ashes and dust. Valar Morghulis to the extreme I suppose.

If you haven't read the book, do not read these spoilers.

Figures. The wall's coming down when some idiot blows that soundless horn they found with the dragonglass way back in the beginning that turns out to be the real horn of jourmuz or whatever the **** it was, Arya's going to singlehandedly kill eveyone within a 500 mile radius of wherever she ends up, Brans going to make all the trees shoot death rays and laserbeams at everyone, the direwolves are going to eat all the crannogmen and the children of the forest, The dragons are going to eat all the dothraki and most of the slavers, Sansa's going to go insane and turn berserker and kill everyone up that direction, Tyrion is going to end up in some sort of trebuchet incident gone horribly wrong, the others kill everyone else, then a massive undetected asteroid takes out the whole planet. Then a black hole eats the galexy for good measure. Maybe rickon will turn cannile and eat roose.

I figure we're in for at least one more "head of the dragon" to be suprise revealed next book, though I can't imagine who it would be.

So, 110% better than the last book, that's for sure. We went from ~60% Lannister chapters to having only about two chapters of Cersei and one of Jaime (although I'll admit I'm curious as **** as to what happened with Brienne and him after they disappeared).

Pretty much loved all of it... And then Jon gets stabbed to death. COME ON! He's my favorite! Yes, it is not 100% sure that he died, but no death really is. Martell was ambiguous too until the next chapter. I honestly thought we were going to get some Dany magic from him and he wouldn't be roasted alive. Not that I liked him, but I'm fully expecting three dragon riders, and so far we only have one. Kevan was kinda disappointing, but oh well.

My thoughts on the future/present

-Tyrion gets to Merene, worms his way into Dany's service (likely as a servant or something), eventually gets the grey plague, and dies. I really hope he gets to *** up Penny first. And then she dies of the plague too, because GRRM hates happy endings. -Stannis isn't dead. I don't know what's up with the banker showing up with the Ironmen, but I don't think Stannis bit it in the blizzard. -Mance was captured and tortured. How Ramsay got through the glamour I don't know, but it probably has to do with him losing the ruby. Flaying revealed the rest of his secrets, but Theon and Jeyne got away and back to Stannis. I want Ramsay to die SOOO badly. He's the only truly "evil" character we've had since the Mountain. -Jon Snow is probably dead. Sad to say, but I can't see him surviving several knife wounds from his friends. And honestly... this sounds rough, but he deserved it. He was skirting his vows for a while with the wildlings, and while his plan to kill Ramsay made me cheer, his death was fully justified by his oath. -In all likelihood, Melisandre will save his life, because honestly Jon's just too awesome to kill off. Right? RIGHT!?!? -I really missed hearing anything from Sansa in this book. She only had, what, three chapters last book? But they were my favorite out of all of them.

Some other thoughts: -Jon is probably dead. However, I'm thinking he will be placed in Ghost. From there, a few things could happen: he could be brought back by Melisandre; he could go see Bran; or ****, maybe he learns more about being a Warg.

-Jon is a Targaryn. It's a stretch, but the fact that SO much speculation has been going on about his mother leads me to believe he's one of "heads of the dragon." First, Melisandre is seeing him again and again in prophecy. We assume Ned is his father, and the timeline wouldn't make sense for the father being Brandon Stark (who was dead more than a year before), but Rhaegar had "kidnapped" and been "raping" Lyanna during the time Ned was at war. Her last words ("Promise me, Ned") could have been her making him promise to raise Jon as his own child.

-From this, I think Jon will become a head of the dragon. Either he gets his body back, or he becomes a warg and takes control of a dragon.

Other things...

-The greenseer with Bran is likely a former commander of the Night Watch from a hundred years ago. Apparently he's part of a series of short stories from Martin called "The Adventures of Dunk and Egg," and is nicknamed Raventree. Only issue with this is I'm preeeeeetty sure they said the greenseer is a few hundred years old, and this would put his age at about 100 (Egg is Maester Aemon's brother).

-Coldhands is pretty much universally thought to be Benjen.

-I missed it before, but Rickon s on Skagos, an island of cannibals.

-I also missed it, but some of the Freys who had been killed were served as pies at Ramsay's wedding. A lot of Abel/Mance's singing alludes to more than they seem to. Even Abel itself is an anagram of Bael (the Bard) who stole the lord of Winterfell's daughter in the wildlings' songs.

Oh, and not that it matters, but there seems to be some debate on who killed Little Walder.

Honestly I'm not sure why this is. It seemed immediately obvious to me that Big Walder and/or the *******'s Boys did it, looking for an excuse to start trouble. Abel and his girls deny it, and I don't think Manderly could have done it. That leaves what seems to be an obvious answer: Big Walder was getting sick of his cousin and decided to cash in on the recent deaths. Little Walder didn't enjoy torture like Ramsay's other toadies, so they offed him.

So, 110% better than the last book, that's for sure. We went from ~60% Lannister chapters to having only about two chapters of Cersei and one of Jaime (although I'll admit I'm curious as **** as to what happened with Brienne and him after they disappeared).

Pretty much loved all of it... And then Jon gets stabbed to death. COME ON! He's my favorite! Yes, it is not 100% sure that he died, but no death really is. Martell was ambiguous too until the next chapter. I honestly thought we were going to get some Dany magic from him and he wouldn't be roasted alive. Not that I liked him, but I'm fully expecting three dragon riders, and so far we only have one. Kevan was kinda disappointing, but oh well.

My thoughts on the future/present

-Tyrion gets to Merene, worms his way into Dany's service (likely as a servant or something), eventually gets the grey plague, and dies. I really hope he gets to *** up Penny first. And then she dies of the plague too, because GRRM hates happy endings. -Stannis isn't dead. I don't know what's up with the banker showing up with the Ironmen, but I don't think Stannis bit it in the blizzard. -Mance was captured and tortured. How Ramsay got through the glamour I don't know, but it probably has to do with him losing the ruby. Flaying revealed the rest of his secrets, but Theon and Jeyne got away and back to Stannis. I want Ramsay to die SOOO badly. He's the only truly "evil" character we've had since the Mountain. -Jon Snow is probably dead. Sad to say, but I can't see him surviving several knife wounds from his friends. And honestly... this sounds rough, but he deserved it. He was skirting his vows for a while with the wildlings, and while his plan to kill Ramsay made me cheer, his death was fully justified by his oath. -In all likelihood, Melisandre will save his life, because honestly Jon's just too awesome to kill off. Right? RIGHT!?!? -I really missed hearing anything from Sansa in this book. She only had, what, three chapters last book? But they were my favorite out of all of them.

Jon should be a warg with Ghost I think, not sure how that can change after it happens, I don't think a dead skinchanger can jump anymore after his final choice. I think the thought that he's a Targaryen rape child is pretty accurate, but it would be hard for him to become a dragonrider later on. Although, nothing's certain at this point.

... oh, you were serious? No idea. Apparently at least 100 manuscript pages were moved from ADWD and put in the next book. So far there's only been three confirmed POVs: Arianne Martell Sansa Stark Aeron 'Damphair' GreyjoyThere also may be a POV chapter for Arya Stark, but that was from GRRM's livejournal in June of 2010, so it's possible it was moved back into ADWD. And I think it's been confirmed that Rickon and Osha make a reappearance, as well as Mago, a Dothraki from the first book (who was actually killed in the TV series, despite the producers being told that he'll be back).

Since the last book took 6 years, and Martin is busy with his other writing and the TV series, it'll likely be a couple of years at least. In the meantime there are several novellas (including the ones I mentioned in previous posts) being developed, as well as a potential companion volume.

All of this might whet our tastes, but will likely also slow writing for the new book

So I still haven't picked up a copy yet, but I was just speaking to a girl on the train who was reading it, and she let me take a look-through. It's like a goddamned geography text....what are there, 12 maps?

She had it signed. Apparently GRRM was in town last week for a big signing. She said he was super-friendly, and looked like a tugboat captain.